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DDMSWCF Offers Typhoon Victims Spiritual and Material Support

Typhoon Kalmaegi struck Taiwan on 18 July 2008, flooding the central and southern regions and blocking road access to aboriginal villages in some mountain areas. According to an official report, the loss was over NT$10 million. Several people were killed.

Dharma Drum Mountain Social Welfare and Charity Foundation (DDMSWCF) was quick to dispatch volunteers to visit and provide material and spiritual support to those affected by the typhoon. Volunteers helped the victims clean up their houses as well as prayed and chanted Buddhist scriptures for both the survivors and the deceased.

On the afternoon of 19 July, volunteers from DDM's Tainan branch office arrived at the Kuanher community of Tainan County, where the typhoon had reportedly caused flooding over two-storeys high. The volunteers visited Mr. Mai's family to convey DDM's warmest regards over Mr. Mai's passing, caused by the natural disaster. Although Mr. Mai was not a Buddhist, the compassionate volunteers wholeheartedly assisted his family to clean up the house and surroundings, and to process Mr. Mai's funeral affairs.

Volunteers also visited Mr. Lee's family in Jaihsien Township of Kaohsiung County. Mr. Lee's house was swallowed by a devastating landslide caused by the typhoon which left four families dead. Two families are still being treated for trauma at Tainan's Chi Mei Hospital. Venerable Guo Chou of DDM's Tainan branch office and other volunteers paid their condolences to Mr. Lee's family at the hospital and prayed for the deceased by chanting Buddhist scriptures.

For other victims living in Kaohsiung County, the region hardest hit by Typhoon Kalmaegi, DDM's volunteers contributed their best efforts to transport rice, cooking oil, instant noodles and other relief supplies and prayed that the victims will be able to walk out of sorrow and return to the peaceful path of living.